Federal authorities say Sergei Kusyakov, who was involved with Metro Chiropractic and Wellness Center and City Lights Medical Center, paid Florida Hospital employees to steal private patient information through Dale Munroe II and his wife, Katrina Munroe, who worked at Florida Hospital’s Celebration campus. Dale Munroe accessed more than 763,000 records for patients treated at various Florida Hospital locations. He focused on patients who were in automobile accidents, and inappropriately reviewed in detail more than 12,000 patient records.

Conspiracy is commonly characterized as an accord of two or more people to commit a crime. Conspiracy crimes can range from conspiracy to defraud the United States to something as simple as conspiracy to harm the neighbor’s dog. The most commonly prosecuted conspiracy crimes in Jacksonville and federal court is conspiracy to distribute drugs, particularly marijuana, ecstasy, and methamphetamine . However, many of these conspiracies now are for information based theft crimes.

Many think that when one is going through another individual or a computer to accomplish one’s goals, one feels disconnected from anyone that might be harmed by one’s desires, simply because one does not physically see an injured party. To the detriment of the accused, the State is not required to prove specific intent by the defendants to injure any specific person. Instead, the conspirators need only to have agreed to engage in a certain illegal act under federal law, as well as in Florida.

Conspiracy is a specific intent crime in the sense that the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused had a considered, deliberate, specific intent to join the conspiracy charged with. To establish this intent, the evidence of knowledge must be clear, substantial, and unequivocal, not slim. In other words, the prosecutor must prove that the accused knew the conspiracy’s aims and intended to achieve them by joining the charged conspiracy. Merely showing that the accused had a general knowledge about criminal activity does not prove that they agreed to be a part of the conspiracy. Furthermore, being present at the scene of an act budding from the conspiracy, either the crime itself, other activity associated with it, or mere association with a co-conspirator, is not enough to establish the accused’s intentional and deliberate participation in criminal activity, even if the accused is aware of the criminal activity.

An individual charged with conspiracy has a number of potential defenses. One may have never agreed to join the conspiracy, or if one did, the prosecution may misperceive the nature and extent of one’s involvement. One may have withdrawn from the conspiracy. The drug amounts in Jacksonville’s common drug conspiracy cases may be exaggerated, or the amount of loss attributable in a fraud conspiracy may be inflated. Another problem the accused may face is a fight from now adverse witnesses against one that may be lying in order to cut a more favorable deal with the prosecutor.

When one has been charged with a crime such as this, one should obtain an experienced Jacksonville conspiracy crimes defense attorney. One should not throw their possible defenses to the wind. Without an experienced attorney, one could face a difficult time in proving one’s defense. Don’t let this happen to you. If one is a suspect of conspiracy, one should get a defense; the best defense possible.

The Forbess Law Firm has been aiding clients who face criminal charges in Jacksonville for years and are here to provide aggressive criminal defense to anyone accused of a crime. If you or a loved one require a Jacksonville criminal defense lawyer, contact our firm today. We are available through our website or by calling us at 904-634-0900.